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Smart home products (SHPs) significantly enhance the well-being of elderly people, who are eager to use them but often hindered by cognitive limitations, deepening the digital divide. This research, grounded in social transformation and affordance actualisation theories, explores how to improve SHP utilisation for elderly people. It examines industry impacts and identifies specific challenges and affordances related to elderly people’ use of SHPs. Key findings reveal that functional, social, and emotional values are crucial in driving SHP adoption. Challenges faced by elderly people include inertia, low internet efficacy, effort redundancy, perceived privacy risks, and unreasonable information formats. Identified affordances to overcome these challenges include system reliability, timely system feedback, enhanced human–computer interaction, and anthropomorphism. This paper highlights the need for targeted strategies to enhance SHPs accessibility and usability for elderly people, addressing both individual and product-related obstacles.
Zhu et al. (2025) studied this question.